Almost Finished Love Stories
by DevilJess
Summary: And as they grew up they learned how to love. And as they loved, the brave ninja they loved slowly learned how to love back. **Gift!fic for thelonelyrose and thebluebird. Pairings - SasuSaku NaruHina InoKiba NejiTen ShikaTem SuiKar


**Dj here. This is a gift!fic for thelonelyrose and thebluebird (**.net/u/2324356/thelonelyrose_and_thebluebird**), who inspired me to write fanfiction again after an amazing review on my story Broken. I learned yet another way to look at my writing and the characters you try to do justice when you write fanfiction. You better like this thelonelyrose and thebluebird. =D**

**This is put up as one story, but it is really just six little drabbles on the same subject. Enjoy! **

**IMPORTANT! Also, the song lyrics are for the drabble _directly following_ them. THANKS! **

Almost Finished Love Stories

_She just keeps it bundled up and never lets it show_  
_ She can't take much more of this_  
_ But she can't let it go_  
_ And that's okay, she don't want the world_

She felt fake around him.

Maybe it was his glare, white eyes penetrating everything. It was like he could see into her soul, see through her feeble attempts to hide her feelings for him. It was like her strong personality, the one she had spent years building up, was stripped away by his eyes leaving only the shy little girl who loved him. And she felt foolish for it. She felt foolish because she would never be strong enough for him.

It was a ridiculous thought for her. Tenten had a strong personality. She always had. She fought for everything she had. She would kill and fight and rip and tear and scream for her chance to voice her opinion. She was loud, but not obnoxiously so. She was rock hard and focused and strong. She was the one who ignored boys in favor of training. She was the one with a guarded heart. She was the one who could kill without attachment on a mission. She was Tenten, and she was a true ninja.

But Neji's white eyes removed all of that. When he looked at her she could feel it. She could see it reflected in the clear pools of white. She knew that he saw what she really was. She was weak. She had a stuffed panda bear. She still wrote in a diary at seventeen. She often wondered if taking down her hair would make herself more appealing to him, yet she was afraid to. She blushed. She giggled. She cried every night before she went to sleep, regret for the lives she had taken in the service of ANBU overwhelming her. She felt the fear in her target's eyes and it came back to haunt her in her dreams. She was far from a true ninja.

She was embarrassed to be around him. She was embarrassed that his eyes could see the weak her, the girl hiding inside in horror. She knew that as long as she was weak he wouldn't care for her. He was strong, impossibly so. He was unaffected and collected and concrete. He was impossible to beat. And he was breaking her down slowly.

It hurt her to know he would never love her. He despised weakness. She could never be what he wanted, because Tenten had a soft heart. But she swallowed the inferior feeling and the pain and she focused on her training. Someday, maybe, she would squish that little girl inside her and she would become that strong woman she always portrayed.

It was probably her focus on crushing her weakness that caused her not to notice as he slowly started buying her gifts. A trinket here or there for no real reason. He went shopping with her and spent money on her and she never noticed. He spent all the time he could at her apartment and she wrote it off as just hanging out. They were ANBU partner's after all. It wasn't until he insisted they go out for diner instead of their customary homemade meal at her place that she realized what was going on. Half a year after the first seemingly pointless gift she slipped her hand into his for the first time on their first recognizable date. And she saw the corner of his mouth lift. Maybe it wasn't so bad of her to have a soft heart.

After all, this warm feeling through her chest felt nice.

_And even though the moment passed me by _  
_I still can't turn away _  
_Cuz all the dreams you never thought you'd lose _  
_Got tossed along the way_

They were such opposites it could never be.

Knowing that made her sad. It was like a shot to the heart, all pain and tears. He was brash and confident, she was shy and doubtful. He was the essence of the sun: bright and warm. She was the moon: dim and cool. She blushed like crazy, pale to red, and his face never seemed to change from its solid golden tan. His hair was spiky and blond, unpredictable like him. Hers was flat and dark, always manageable and simple. She stuttered and never made eye contact while he could scream his thoughts to the world without thinking.

It was foolish of her really. Her heart would flail when she saw him and her fingers would go numb. Hinata was to embarrassed to claim to love him, but she knew it in her soul that she did. She always wanted him to look at her, to see her, but if he did she wouldn't know what to do with herself. She was a walking contradiction when it came to him and it was stupid. After all, who could love someone that couldn't make up their mind?

He was heart-stopping in his power when he came back, leaving her even more in the dust. She was still a little girl. He threw himself into the horrifying case of the Uchiha family like it was nothing and Hinata felt so innocent and useless. She was still unable to face the dark side of her own family and Naruto was already fighting shadows and horrors she could never face. She wasn't cut out for this life of a ninja and as he left her behind she fell into despair. Her love for him would always be her secret. It would always be her defining quality, the one that made her cry and train like never before, only to fail again and again. Her cousin was right, she was useless.

But he had believed in her at one time. Hinata knew that. She remembered that, and maybe that was why she wouldn't stop training. There wasn't much improvement, but she didn't care. He believed in her once and if she could just try harder maybe he would again. She put everything she had into being noticed. For once she wasn't on the fence about it. She wanted him to care about her. She knew what she would do if he loved her. She would live happily ever after. Because he gave her the determination to do so. When he gave Pein an opening that day Hinata didn't think, she threw herself in the way. She saved Naruto.

And the way he yelled out her name, as though he cared, made it all worth it.

_Fate fell short this time__  
Your smile fades in the summer__  
Place your hand in mine  
I'll leave when I wanna  
_

She wanted to throttle him.

How could someone be that annoying? How could someone be so snide and rude? How could he manage to pull an insult out of nowhere and tie it into her most recent statement? Although, Karin had to admit, it was pretty amazing. A talent of his. He could infuriate her in a million ways, and he could make it all look effortless. And she hated it.

And she admired it. He impressed her time and again with his wit. He impressed her with his fighting ability. He impressed her with his stubbornness and his stealth and his rugged good looks, though she would never admit it. Her eyes were only for Sasuke-kun, or so she said. But while insisting in her love for the Uchiha she found herself watching Suigetsu more. And testing him more.

It awed her. She slowly began to enjoy giving him a different puzzle to solve. A 'just-you-try-to-turn-that-into-an-insult' puzzle. And her love for Sasuke slowly became more of a habit. And she fought with Suigetsu and it slowly started to make her sad. He was intelligent. He was witty and strong. He was fast and a little arrogant. And, for a criminal, he was kind of gallant. He claimed to hate her. He claimed to have no connection to her, but the day she finally admitted to herself she felt something for him was the day he jumped in front of her, absorbing a blow into his liquid body. A blow that would have crushed her. And he was brave and honorable despite being a missing nin. And she fell for him slowly. Through fighting and screaming and anger, and a few tears on her part when she thought he wasn't looking.

When Sasuke ditched them Karin was almost surprised she wasn't sad. It felt strange, not to have that excuse to fall back on. And she was left alone with the other two. The silent one and the angry one. And they fought more, but less at the same time. And she found it hard to sleep knowing he was next to her. ANBU caught them, and they would have killed him if he fought back, and Karin panicked. It was the only time she ever actually hit him. Their fights had always been verbal before, but she knocked him out to save him. And when he woke in their shared cell the hate in his purple eyes cut her to the core.

Karin swallowed the anger and pain radiating from him in waves and when they took her to T&I for interrogation she bartered away every scrap of information she had for his safety. Stupid really. He was probably going to hate her for giving in to the oppressors, Suigetsu never liked people who tried to force him to do anything. But she did it anyway.

It all boiled down to an angry confrontation in the cell not a few hours later and a tearful confession a half hour into the verbal slaughter. And he ignored her for the rest of the week they were in that dingy place. And Karin held back the tears, because it just wouldn't do for him to see her cry over him. They found out later that the other member of their party was admitted to the hospital and cured of his curse. Karin wondered if they would cut out her tongue for her.

The day they were separated into different cells Suigetsu threw a fit. To her eternal surprise, after he didn't get what he wanted and was beaten for trying to fight, he grabbed her arm and pulled her to him.

She relived that kiss over and over for the next three months til she saw him again.

_Talking about the dream like the dream is over_  
_Talk like that won't get you nowhere_  
_Everybody's trusting in the heart_  
_Like the heart don't lie_

She wasn't sure what she was doing.

She was a flirt and happy-go-lucky. She could never keep her head on straight, it seemed. There were just too many good looking single guys in her life. Ino felt almost trapped by her reputation and her hormones. She talked to one, flirted with another, and went on random dates with most of them. She felt like a tease, and she rightfully should. No man seemed to dare ask for a relationship. And Ino was the only kunoichi in her year not to have ever had a steady relationship at age twenty. It was driving her insane, but she just couldn't help it. She just couldn't decide. Her best friends got together. Her best friends got engaged. Ino was going to go mad. So she ran.

Ino just ran one day. She left town, she needed time alone. Sasuke had gotten his time, it was her turn now. She was gone and she was alone and she had never been more miserable. But she persevered. She insisted she was a ninja and she would be fine. She needed to find a path. She needed to be a solid person. She needed to be reliable and there for someone who loved her.

Only one of her many flirt-buddies came after her, not that she expected any of them to. She had left to find herself and that meant no boys. But he was in front of her, plain as day, riding that fluffy dog. And she glared and yelled and threw a tantrum and he yelled right back, his anger somehow overpowering her own. And one thing lead to another and they were exchanging blows. Except he was just being defensive, chiding her and goading her with barking anger. And she was crying and just trying to get him to shut up. Her blows grew weaker and her tears grew stronger. His voice died out, overpowered by her sobs and screams. He just didn't understand.

And then she was in his arms, not sure how it happened. And somewhere there was barking. She was crying, trying to explain it all as it came out in a rush, verbal vomit of the tearful kind. And he was just holding her, not pushing her away, not arguing or reasoning with her, or even agreeing with her. He just held her and let her talk and cry until her voice was killing her and there was not a drop of saltwater in her body. And then he told her to come back anyway and she was tearing away. Ino was on a journey of self-discovery and she wasn't going to give up that easily.

But Kiba had the most ridiculous compromise. And for some reason she wanted nothing more then to accept. And she did. She accepted and he held her and they went home. She was welcomed back, taking over her flower shop again. She took missions again. She went away for days but she always came back. She had to be home to feed the dog when Kiba had a mission Akamaru couldn't be apart of.

And when he didn't have a mission she had a boyfriend to get back to.

_That I love you and I loved you all along  
And I miss you, been far away for far too long  
I keep dreaming you'll be with me and you'll never go  
Stop breathing if I don't see you anymore_

What she was doing with him was nowhere close to responsible.

And that was strange and bad. She was the responsible one. To any third party that was a silly thing to say. Her youngest brother was the Kazekage. Kankuro was Gaara's right hand man. Her little brothers had grown up and could fend for themselves now. They were responsible. But Temari knew the truth. She got on the redhead's case about paperwork until he did it. She was the only one who did that. And the other brother would polish his puppets all day if someone didn't lock them away, that someone was always her. She protected them. She was the responsible one.

But one could argue that she didn't have to do that as often anymore. The last time she was forced to tell Gaara to do his paperwork instead of him doing it himself was weeks ago. Months even. And Kankuro hadn't neglected his duties in half a year. But Temari still felt responsible for them. They were her family after all.

But she was now the one always shut up in her room, re-reading letters from him. She was always writing a new one, always distracted. What was he doing? How was he feeling? When would she see him again? And she made sure to visit as often as possible. And he was there whenever he could get away. And it was wrong. She was supposed to be the responsible one. But she found herself skipping duties to be that much closer to him, spend that much more time with him, write him that much more in a letter. She was horrified when Kankuro of all people told her she needed to spend less time waiting for letters at the post office and more time on council business.

It took Temari a year to give up on being the responsible one. She left her position on the council, for once not caring what would happen. She packed her bags, not bothering to worry about a blessing. Temari had always been a control freak, but now she was letting go of her life in Suna. She left. She said goodbye of course, but she still abandoned her old life without a concrete plan. She was going to see Shikamaru and ask if she could stay with him.

She wasn't sure if he would let her. He was so lazy that she probably would be too much of a bother for him. But he was also so laid back that if she wanted to she could probably walk in and take over his life without question. He would bend to her will easily, he always did. And Temari was never sure if it was because it was too troublesome for him to resist or if it was because he really did love her as much as he said he did.

She felt her heart pound for three days as she walked to his city. And she arrived, pounding on the door of her lazy loves house with nervous sweat coating her palms. He was so surprised and overjoyed to see her. Temari's heart melted as he welcomed her. She started a life in Konoha, she was married within a year.

And she was never more glad she had irresponsible moments.

_Think of me when you're out, when you're out there_  
_I'll beg you nice from my knees_  
_And when the world treats you way too fairly_  
_Well, it's a shame I'm a dream_

After all these years he still melted her heart.

And it was stupid and foolish and ridiculous because she was supposed to be stronger then that. She went through years without him, getting over him, and years training to be strong. She wasn't supposed to choke on the first hurdle. She wasn't supposed to have a rush of feeling when she saw him, starting somewhere in the pit of her stomach and spreading up through her heart to her throat where it blocked her breathing. She was supposed to spit in his face and turn her back on him. She was supposed to prove she didn't need him. She had moved on.

But he stood in front of her now at the gate to the village she loved so much, eyes deep and impossibly black. Swirling with unreadable thoughts. He said her name and she didn't know what to do. Sakura should have turned away. She shouldn't have treated him anymore different then any other criminal. She should have attacked him. He was technically invading Konoha and she should have treated him as such.

She didn't. Her mouth opened uselessly and she stared at him, eyes wide and bottle green. Her hands were slack, hanging by her sides like wet noodles. Her body went stiff as a board and her mouth stuttered his name treacherously. He just watched her. He could have killed her. It wouldn't have been hard. She was so shocked to see him, so relieved, so overcome by her feeling of attraction and love that he could have cut her down in an instant. She should have had a chidori through her chest in payment for dropping her guard like that, but she didn't. And he didn't make any movement to hurt her.

Instead Sasuke said her name back. Every syllable said in the strangest way. Like he was rolling the word around in his mouth and enjoying the taste of it. Like he wanted to catch her attention and pull her towards him. Like he wanted her to never look away from her. It was the strangest way for him to say anything. He never spoke anything like that, and certainly not her name. His eyes did the same thing his voice did. Coaxing her. Or maybe it was her imagination that threw everything he did into wildly beautiful recreations of the truth, believing that he cared about her, tricking herself into loving him more, like the young Sakura used to do to herself. She cursed her wild imagination.

Still relaxed, shocked, and open she blinked. And he was in front of her, onyx eyes taking over all of her vision. Her breath hitched and she wondered why she left her guard down. Now she would die and the last thing she would see would be his aristocratic face giving her a flat look as it always had. She couldn't trick herself into thinking he cared about her. She needed to move on, not think she was but really do it this time. Maybe.

To her amazement the kiss he gave her in the next second was not a trick.

**And done. What did you think? Review with amazingness and I might just write you a gift!fic too. =D**


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